LIVE: House Democrat Leadership Hold Weekly Press Conference (July 18)

and will be on the chopping block once again in a Republican shutdown. That means that over 300,000 already approved veterans could lose out on their VA benefits. And that's not including those expected to apply before an important deadline on August 9th. Let's be clear that Republican extremism is a danger to our national security and undermines our nation's commitment to veterans. Here to talk about that are a few of my colleagues and I'll first yield to Congressman Raul Ruiz. Thank you, Chairman. It's always a pleasure to be here with you. Hello, I'm Congressman Dr. Raul Ruiz. I represent California's 25th congressional district in the House of Representatives. It's an honor to be here today with caucus chair Pete Aguilar, as well as Congresswoman Mikey Sherrill to commemorate the one year anniversary of honoring our PAC Act, the most expansive access to care for veterans in generations. Last year, I had the honor to work alongside ranking member Takano, our nation's VSOs and countless others to bring the PAC Act across the finish line. It was based from out of my bill, the war fighters, benefits for war fighters exposed to burn pits and other toxins act, which gave a presumptive of benefits for 23 categories of illnesses and cancers for veterans who had been exposed to burn pits. And now because of the fierce advocates like burn pits, 360s, the disabled American veterans, the veterans of foreign wars, the American Legion, Wounded Warrior Project in Iraq and Afghanistan, veterans of America, and the stories of fallen heroes like my constituent, Jennifer Kepner, who was exposed to toxic burn pits in Balad Air Force Base and later succumbed to pancreatic cancers and many others whose courage has served as an inspiration to so many. Over 3.5 million veterans and their families will be able to access the benefits and care that they need and have earned and deserve. And we are already seeing the results. Since August, 2021, the VA has completed over 33,000 claims, granted benefits to more than 25,000 veterans resulting in over $93 million in retroactive benefits payments. That's a huge deal. In fact, I got a text the other day from a Wounded Warrior fellow who then became a veteran specialist staff in my district office, who is now living in Arkansas. And he texted me how prior to the PACT Act, one out of 10 veterans would get their claims would be accepted. Nine out of 10 would be denied. And we reminisced on the struggles that it was to help get them the care and the benefits that they and their families needed. And he says now because of the PACT Act, nine out of 10 claims are being approved. And so he was also instrumental in my staff team to get this over the finish line. And he's seeing the real live effects of this in the lives of veterans being able to get the care that they need and their families the benefits that they need to live a life with dignity. So that is clear evidence amongst all the other statistics that I mentioned, how this bill is really improving the lives of our service members, our veterans. So now one year later, after President Biden signed this monumental legislation into law, we have the opportunity to build on this progress and continuing delivering for our nation's veterans, service members and military families by working to prevent exposure to toxic burn pits and other toxins once and for all. And we do that by putting people above politics. We do that by putting aside the political game, the extreme agenda that the House majority is pushing through Congress and focusing on improving the lives of everyday Americans. So today, as we look back on this victory for our nation's veterans, let's honor them and their service with actions, not just words, to continue making a difference in their lives. I thank you. And now I yield to Congresswoman Mikey Sherrill. Well, thank you. It is wonderful to be here today to celebrate the year anniversary of the Honoring Our Pact. As a Navy veteran myself, I care very deeply about the veteran community. And a couple of things happened when I first got into Congress. One, the victim compensation fund for our 9-11 first responders was running out of money. And two, we passed the Blue Water Navy Veterans Act. That was to take care of Vietnam-era veterans who'd been exposed to Agent Orange. And so in seeing that confluence of events and seeing how important it is to care for people who have been exposed to toxic fumes and seeing how long it took us to care for some of our Vietnam-era veterans, I knew how incumbent it was upon our Congress and my colleagues to pass legislation to take care of our veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan who have been exposed to toxic fumes. And we needed to act quickly. We couldn't take decades to do that. We had to do it now because they and their families, and as you've heard from Dr. Ruiz, are suffering today. And too many of them were being turned away at the VA, saying that there was not a causal link, this was not a factor. So this presumption was so incredibly important, but not just making sure they were able to get seen, but that the VA has the resources to implement this. And I'll tell you, as a veteran, I work closely with my colleagues across the aisle who've also served. And it was shocking to me that in the debt ceiling fight, in the debt ceiling fight, we saw the GOP coming after the very support that our veterans needed to make sure that we did honor our pact with them to take care of them. And so I was thrilled that in that negotiation, the administration and our leadership was able to push hard and get that into some mandatory spending. But we are gonna face a fight again here as we come upon the appropriations process. And that's why it's so important that we keep pushing to support our veterans. Because again, those who have served our nation across the world deserve to be taken care of when they come home, especially with this exposure, which we call our generation's Agent Orange. So that's why I'm so proud we're celebrating the year here today to remind everyone that we need to continue this fight to ensure that we can in fact honor our pact with our veterans. So it's wonderful to be here. And with that, I will turn it back over to the chairman for questions. Thank you, Mikey. Thank you for your service. And thank you for sharing. And Dr. Ruiz, I appreciate your leadership on the PACT Act as well. And Mikey, yours last week with NDAA, appreciate all the work that you and the committee did. Questions. Mr. Chairman, based on your unique 18 months on the select, what do you make of the news that Trump got a target? I don't think it's surprising. I think the committee laid out, and you'll remember this, Scott, we said time and time again, our focus was to seek the truth and to make sure that there's accountability. We also said very clearly that there were some tools that could be utilized only by the Department of Justice that were not available to us in our select committee. So we're appreciative of the work of the Department of Justice and their focus on staying true to finding the facts and holding people accountable. Their track record has been very solid when it comes to prosecutions. And we expect that the target letter and the work that the grand jury continues to do will meet that threshold of seeking the facts and holding people accountable, no matter where they are and no matter who they are. Mr. Chairman, a message to Israel's president and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's meeting or this joint session. What do you say about the way Congress sees the relationship? It's an incredibly special relationship with Israel. We welcome the president of Israel tomorrow. I'm gonna be joined by my colleagues there on the House floor, just like we are with any joint session. We look forward to his remarks about the special relationship that our two countries have. So much that we have in common, so much technology that we share and that we continue to build upon that relationship. And I also read that the prime minister has been invited by the president as well to come for dates in the future. And so we look forward to those discussions ahead with our building on our special relationship with Israel. Just like I asked you, the president is going to Philadelphia this week to talk about Bidenomics and his term. And I wonder if you all look ahead to your message, or how you, what you explain Bidenomics be. Secondly, just on Israel, with the resolution coming up this week, are you concerned that based on some of the comments, some potential boycotts of the speech, that it might expose more divisions over Israel than unity? No, there's unity in the Democratic caucus. I think you'll see that with a strong attendance from our colleagues on the house floor to see president of Israel address us. So I don't think that there's anything more on that. I think that we look forward to the conversation. With respect to your first question, I think, and we talked about this a little bit last week, and I'm happy to yield to my colleagues. Look, you can call it Bidenomics, you can call it significant progress. I think what the middle class wants to see is that these are policies that are working. Over 13 million jobs created by the Biden-Harris administration, record unemployment numbers, inflation lowering months and months in a row. These are positive strong signs to growing the middle class from the middle out and the ground up. Those are, that's what the country wants to see. That's what's going to be important in Pennsylvania, as well as in communities in New Jersey and in California. That's what we wanna see. And we've been privileged to be able to work with the Biden-Harris administration as they have put dollars out on the streets for building on the infrastructure bill and the Chips and Science Act. These are real proposals, real accomplishments, in addition to the PACT Act that my colleagues talked about that are making a considerable difference in the lives of Americans across this country. Max, then Nick. You opened up by talking about shutdowns. You say they're okay with this and we're at a fiscal deal. Can you describe your thoughts on that prospect as many Republicans not want to be okay with a shutdown? And if that does happen, what's the way out of it? You guys would know based on your reporting, but it is absolutely shocking and dangerous that the number of House Republicans feel that this is just a negotiating position, that they can support a government shutdown. It is dangerous. It is dangerous to our military. It is dangerous to our domestic programs to have a government shutdown. We've experienced this in the past. And that's what concerns us. And the path out is for reasonable Republicans and the so-called moderate Republicans to stand up to their leadership and to say no. If the Senate in a bipartisan way sends bills over that avoids a shutdown, will moderate Republicans have the spine to stand up to their leadership and to say, let's avoid a shutdown, let's pass bipartisan bills? That's a question for them because oftentimes they give happy talk, happy moderate talk in front of podiums and when they're back home, and then they vote to cut veterans' health benefits and they vote with the most extreme members of their party time and time again on the House floor. And so that's what absolutely concerning. And so we hope that as they go into the August recess, our colleagues on the other side of the aisle, find an ability to stand up to their own leadership to say, no, we will not have a shutdown that threatens our economy, threatens our progress, threatens our national defense. That's what's important. Mikey, sure. I just wanna add, I think there is a real lack of understanding between the GOP and the people who work for living across this country. And to think that there are no ramifications and that you might be okay as an elected member of Congress to shut our government down, that you would be okay to put Americans who are working hard for this country at risk of missing paychecks, missing mortgage payments, having, you know, unable to pay for credit cards. And I know this because when I was at the US Attorney's Office, we would have briefings before a possible government shutdown. How do you engage with your bank? What are you gonna need if you need a loan? How can we help you? Who's not gonna be able to pay their mortgage this month? Who's gonna miss some bills this month? And there's this attitude that I have found in Congress. Oh, we'll just backfill it. We'll just back pay it. Well, think of, does that help your credit as you've missed payments? Oh, I just am gonna come forward and just back pay it. That doesn't change your credit score. That doesn't change your borrowing rates. So this blase attitude towards, and everything from sending the economy into a recession to shutting down the government, I just, I could not disagree with more. And I could not, I cannot push back against more strongly this attitude that certain members of Congress don't feel the need to govern. And I find that very frustrating. I also wanna say it's pathological and abusive to want to harm the American people in order to push your extreme agenda. This is a pattern that we're seeing over and over again. The threat of defaulting on our credit with a debt ceiling in order to threaten to ruin the economy in order to push their extreme agenda. Now they're doing it again, threatening to have a government shutdown, which will hurt the American people in order to push their agenda. And as Congresswoman Sherrill just said, this has real implications to everyday Americans in their lives. I remember during the last government shutdown, I heard from TSA workers and so many government workers that needed assistance for food, that needed assistance for shelter. Many live paycheck to paycheck and not getting paid for a month or two months can put their housing, can put their kids' education, can put so many things in jeopardy that actually causes pain and more stress. And those that are suffering from depression and anxiety already, this could be the factor that can flip them to more serious depression and the lack of resources to get the help that they need. So this has real life negative harmful effects. And so that's why I call it a bully tactic of individuals that have no clue of everyday American struggles, instead wanting to push their budget cuts for programs that help grow the economy from the middle out and from the bottom up in order to continue their rampage and to give the tax breaks to millionaires and billionaires and to dissolve the government. So government cannot stand up for the people against the powerful and the well-to-do and those who want to determine the rules of our society. there's this Israel resolution that is this something that we're doing and you expect a large number. I expect a large number of Democrats to vote for it. I'll be voting for it. It's a pretty simple resolution. I don't disagree with it. so I'm going to vote for it. That's kind of how this place works. Speaker McCarthy yesterday during a press conference said that it should be on Democratic leadership to do something of this comments like those from Congress, which I follow again. Is there anything planned and how does that strike the It's pretty laughable coming from Speaker McCarthy. I think he's got enough problems in his own conference. That's what he should be be worried about. You know, the getting the extremists out of out of his conference should should keep him up at night and should be plenty of plenty of cause for him to think about Freedom to Vote Act, John Lewis Voting Rights Act, those are the pillars that House Democrats have passed that we hope would have taken action, would have meant to action in the Senate. That's not what happened. Such huge contrast. When Republicans say election integrity, it is code for voter suppression. That's what they want. They want to change the rules of the game. They want to reduce the number of people, predominantly in black and brown communities, who turn out to vote. That's exactly what we spent time talking about in House administration when we dealt with this. I was on the election subcommittee, the last Congress, and to see them continue this assault is dangerous. But we're going to continue to say time and time again that everybody who has a right to vote should be able to exercise their franchise to vote. Republicans do not believe in that. Their policies reflect that, and they continue to push conspiracy theories when it comes to election rules and election law. That's a question for whip Clark. I'm not aware of any notices related to the items that are on the agenda today, but I'll be voting for it. An overwhelming number of my colleagues will be voting for it based on the text of the resolution. I'll ask Dr. Ruiz, wearing his former CHC chairmanship hat on to also comment. I authored an amendment last week in appropriations. It's a similar amendment that I've offered the last six years. By the way, it's had bipartisan support every time I've offered it. This isn't about politics. This is about making sure that young people have an opportunity to succeed, making sure that individuals with DACA status have the ability to work for FEMA as disaster specialists or the USDA as food inspector workers. Those are the types of open positions we have in the federal government. And I don't believe from a workforce perspective, we should be keeping individuals with DACA status out. So I appreciate that three of my Republican colleagues supported the amendment. Others have in committee in the past. If this were to come to a floor vote, I think it would overwhelmingly win. We are showing that there is a strong bipartisan support for DACA and for individuals with DACA status to be able to live here, to be out of the shadows, hopefully to have a path to citizenship. That's ultimately what this is about. But what my amendment did was from a workforce perspective, and I think it's undeniable that it would have a contribution to this country and to the government. So I would ask that Republicans focus on actual policy. And I was thankful that some of them did. Ultimately it failed because Republican leadership didn't want it. And three Republicans supported it. It was 30 to 30 and one important vote walked out of the room. So that's sometimes what happens here. That's not going to stop us from continuing to try. And as long as I'm in Congress and until we fix this problem, I'm going to continue to look at every creative opportunity, whether it's an appropriations bill or whether it's on a floor vote or whether it's on a more expansive bill to make sure that we're doing right by individuals with DACA status and putting them on a path to citizenship. Dr. Ruiz. Thank you, Chairman. As the media past chair of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, I can tell you that it was, it is, was, is, will always be a top priority for us. What you just heard in terms of the game plays of a tie vote and then somebody stepping outside in order not to vote in favor of it is called sabotage. And every step of the way Democrats have worked tirelessly to strategize, to implement, to vote on a bill that will give a permanent status and a pathway to citizenship for DACA recipients and DREAMers. And every step of the way, Republicans have refused to either take up a vote, bring it up to the House or have voted against it. And then they turn around and then they say that Democrats are not doing enough for DREAMers and DACA recipients as a political myth and lie in order to try to win campaigns. And so what we have successfully been able to do under our leadership is to pass the Dream and Promise Act out of the House to move forward comprehensive immigration reform. And what we needed were 10 Senate Republicans last Congress to come on board, just 10, 10 to come on board and say, yes, enough is enough. Let's give a pathway to citizenship for DREAMers under the Dream and Promise Act that Congresswoman Lucille Roybal-Allard introduced. We're introducing that this year under Silvia Garcia. And we're also reintroducing the U.S. Citizenship Act, which is the comprehensive immigration reform plan that has been worked by both the Congressional Hispanic Caucus and the Biden administration together that would give certainty moving forward. And the other thing that the other venue that we have now that we do not have the speakership of the House, because now it depends on Speaker McCarthy to allow us a vote on the Dream and Promise Act, which garnered nine Republicans in the House last Congress. We can we can start moving and having serious conversations about about DREAMers and DACA. In the absence of that, we work with the administration in order to strengthen the DACA program as much as we can. And with their announcement recently about at least allowing DACA recipients to purchase their own health insurance through the Affordable Care Act, which would help increase our public health and and provide some certainty for them for their own health care needs. Now, now we have to take a step back and view this as putting people over politics because the people who call themselves DREAMers or DACA recipients are in every sense of the words American. They know no other country as home than America. They have hopes, aspirations to work and serve America. Many of them are service members. They serve in our military. They're in public service jobs in certain states that allow them to work, teaching our youth and to really be a fabric of our American society. And many of them were heroes during the pandemic as frontline workers, as job creators and service members. And so enough of the extreme agenda. We need to put people above politics and pass a solution for our DREAMers and DACA now. I speak. Are you worried that those offering those type of amendments, the FAA reauthorization bill will derail bipartisan support? What do you make about generally Republicans adding sort of red meat issues to some of these larger legislation? This is exactly what I'll ask Mikey Sherrill to comment as well on NDA. This is exactly the problem with the extreme MAGA wing of the House Republican Party, which is pretty significant. They took a reasonable bipartisan work product in NDAA and we'll see, in FAA, and in order to secure the votes, they have to add the culture wars to it. And so that's what they did. And so as a result now, you have the House bill, which is dead on arrival in the Senate. Instead of having strong bipartisan bills in both the House and the Senate, and then we work to solve our differences in a conference. That's exactly by the way, how appropriations could have worked after Speaker McCarthy agreed to a debt limit deal. And then he backed away from his deal 10 days later. But that's, that's who House Republicans are today is bipartisan committee. And then something happens on the way to the floor. The MAGA wing of the party grabs them and tells them, you have to make this extreme in order for it to pass. And time and time again, Republican leadership just allows it. I think it's really striking and I can't agree more with Pete on this one. For example, in the NDAA, we saw a hugely bipartisan bill coming out of committee. And then this sort of wish list of far-right extremist wants being packed into the bill at the 11th hour. The interesting thing to me in this tactic, which again, districts are very different across the country, I just think it's going to backfire because it's so out of step with the American people. We just see again and again and again, when the American people can weigh in on things like choice, they're very much in favor of the minimal protections of Roe, for example. The idea certainly in my formerly red, now purple district, the idea of any sort of travel ban is odious to suburban women. And I assume that's not just in New Jersey. So to be taking these votes, which I think most of us think these bills, if they can get them out of the house, will be conferenced and much of this will be stripped, sent back so we can have a bipartisan vote on these issues, will not negate the fact that just about every single person in the Republican conference voted to support these far-right extremist amendments, which I think a lot of us were surprised that I did not know if the travel ban was going to pass. I thought there would be far more of my Republican colleagues who in many cases had spoken out against it to me, voting against it. And I think it is going to be very problematic for many of them to have this record of supporting the far-right extremist agenda. And so I think if that is what they choose to do with this FAA reauthorization, I think they're just doubling down on something that is very unpalatable to the American people, which again, I think from some of the stuff that we were discussing earlier, stands in sharp contrast to the work that Democrats have been doing to rebuild our crumbling infrastructure, to address competition with China through the Chips in Science Act, through the Inflation Reduction Act, to address, we just had what, the three hottest days on record on the globe last week, one after the other, after the other. And now, because of the Inflation Reduction Act, we are taking the biggest steps this country's ever taken to address green power and moving forward in a clean power economy. So these are massive shifts, which they're not just going to help the climate, they're going to help the economy. We're building factories. New Jersey has the biggest jobs manufacturing numbers we've seen since the early 90s. And we are a very high-end niche manufacturing state. Imagine what the numbers are looking like in Michigan right now. Imagine with what's being built in the South and across the Southwest. This is a seismic change to our economy that we have instituted, which again, contrasts that sharply with a conference that seems to just want to double down on radical social issues. So I think it's a bad plan. I think we're going to hopefully get those bills back from the Senate in a manner we can pass them and continue to work for the American people. But it is really, I think, a really sad reminder that the conference has been pretty much co-opted by the far right. Just in closing this question, to bring it full circle with the opening of this press conference in celebration of honoring our PACT Act anniversary and the benefits that it has had on the lives of veterans and their families, I'll give you an example of how extreme the Republicans have gone in the NDAA that has inhibited bipartisanship. It is outrageous that my three amendments to help service members who are exposed to burn pits to prevent their toxic exposure to burn pits, to help them, empower them to get educated about the risks of burn pits and to empower families to register burn pits, exposed veterans cause of death in the burn pits registry, all of which would help prevent exposure and improve the outreach and care for our service members. And then veterans were not made in order. They were not made in order. While all their anti-abortion, anti-diversity and anti-LGBTQ plus extreme amendment agenda were made in order. It is an outrage. And I think that these are the clear contrast between a party that wants and has been putting people above politics and focusing on real solutions versus the extreme agenda and cultural wars that another party wants to play. Thank you so much. Thank you.